Family Spotlight

COTA Toddler Grace Moore To Celebrate Her 2nd Birthday … and Her New Heart

“Since Grace was so tiny at the time of her
transplant, we were scared and overwhelmed.
Once we connected with COTA, we were introduced
to hope after transplant. We were also introduced to many other COTA families experiencing the same things. They were holding their heads high … and so could we.”

Helen and Claude Moore
Parents of Grace

On February 13th, Grace Moore will celebrate her second birthday -- and what a celebration it will be! Even before Grace came into this world, her parents Helen and Claude Moore were told during a routine ultrasound their baby had a congenital heart defect. For the last trimester of the pregnancy, the Moores prepared for the surgeries and specialized care their newborn would require.

Throughout her first days of life, Grace’s doctors met with Helen and Claude repeatedly. Their message was clear -- in order to live, Grace needed a new heart. When tiny baby Grace was only 19 days old, she received a new heart … and a second chance at life. During these difficult days, the Moore’s friends and family members reached out to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to see how they could help in their Alabama hometown while Helen and Claude had temporarily relocated to Atlanta, Georgia.

The cost of Grace’s transplant alone totaled $987,000, and the Moores incurred many other costs related to the hospital stay including time away from work and lodging away from home. For the foreseeable future, Grace’s primary doctors will be in Atlanta where she will have monthly appointments -- a 700 mile roundtrip. Grace takes 10 medications daily -- and many of these will continue for her entire life -- at a cost of over $1,500 per month. But COTA has and will help with these expenses.

According to Helen, “COTA means that we were able to focus all of our attention on Grace’s needs. The financial aspects of this journey are overwhelming, but with COTA we do not have to worry about how we are going to do it all. COTA means sleeping soundly through the night and waking up fresh to start living our lives. We are discovering the world through Grace’s beautiful eyes.”

Please visit www.COTAforGraceM.com and leave the Moores your own message
of encouragement, or make a donation to help with Graces's ongoing
transplant-related expenses.

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Transplants Today

New National Donor Memorial Website Launched

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has launched its expanded National Donor Memorial website (www.donormemorial.org). This tribute-driven website honors organ and tissue donors in this country, highlights the impact of their gift of life on the lives of so many others, and underscores the critical importance of increasing organ donation.

The National Donor Memorial website features:

• A new design and updated navigation.
• A virtual tour of the 10,000-square-foot memorial garden.
• An updated 'Tributes' section, which allows visitors to create customized memorial pages.
• A calendar of events and news about the memorial.

In 2003, UNOS began building the 10,000-square-foot memorial at UNOS headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. With the help of a volunteer committee of donor family members, living donors and transplant recipients from across the country, this memorial is now a permanent addition to the UNOS landscape.

Completed in 2006, it now serves as the national transplant community's commemoration of America's organ and tissue donors and their families. The theme of the memorial is "Hope, Renewal, Transformation."

The memorial consists of a walkway and memorial garden that symbolically leads visitors through the organ and tissue donation experience. Visitors can also view online tributes in UNOS' lobby using two interactive kiosk exhibits. Visitors can also view an ongoing donor tribute slideshow projected above the reception area.

Source – www.unos.org

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FDA Approves Drug That Boosts Stem Cell Yield for Bone Marrow Transplants

The new drug recently approved by the U.S. FDA -- Mozobil (plerixafor) -- is intended to be used in combination with the growth factor granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), for treatment of adults with multiple myeloma or non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. Multiple myeloma is cancer of the plasma cell, a cell in the bone marrow that produces antibodies to help fight infection and disease. Non-Hodgkin lymphomas are a diverse group of blood cell cancers derived from lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell.

Prior to receiving high-dose chemotherapy or radiation therapy, patients with these forms of cancer sometimes undergo a procedure known as apheresis in which blood stem cells are collected and stored for reinfusion after therapy. G-CSF is commonly administered to help release and collect stem cells from the bone marrow. Mozobil is an injectable drug that, when used in combination with G-CSF, boosts the number of stem cells released from the bone marrow into the blood stream.

"Collecting the millions of cells needed for a bone marrow transplant can take hours or days," said Richard Pazdur, MD, Director, Office of Oncology Drug Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA. "Mobozil provides a new therapeutic option for patients with certain types of blood cancers by increasing the number of stem cells collected in a given time period to be reinfused after therapy."

In two randomized clinical trials (one in patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the other with multiple myeloma) Mozobil combined with G-CSF increased the number of stem cells available for collection and transplantation compared with patients receiving G-CSF alone.

The most commonly reported adverse reactions in these trials and other smaller studies were diarrhea, nausea, fatigue, injection site reactions, headaches, joint pain, dizziness
and vomiting.

Source – www.fda.gov

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COTA News

COTA Launches New Website

The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) took special care to design an area of the new website specifically for individuals interested in supporting COTA. In the Make a Miracle area of the website visitors/supporters can:

• Learn about contributions, how to calculate deductions and how to contribute.
• Read stories from COTA contributors.
• Learn about volunteer opportunities.
• Learn how to help raise funds and awareness.
• Learn about families/patients currently fundraising through COTA.

Look for the Make a Miracle area on the COTA home page, and then click on GIVE to learn about COTA’s myriad of giving options.

Individuals interested in volunteering can find a COTA campaign or a COTA family who needs support. Look for the Make a Miracle area on the COTA home page and click on Find a COTA Family.

Individuals interested in learning more about COTA Miracle Makers, a group of people who want to give hope and make miracles for children and young adults who need second chance at life, can go to Make a Miracle and click on Volunteer.

Please email if you have any problems navigating COTA’s new website.

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COTA Fast Fact

The Children's Organ Transplant Association (COTA) provides:
Stewardship of the Funds and Non-Profit Status
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association is a national, non-profit organization. COTA is responsible for the oversight of the activities of fundraising campaigns, and serves as the trustee and steward of funds raised -- tasks taken very seriously by the COTA Board of Directors and staff. Funds donated to COTA are deductible for the donor to the fullest extent allowable by law.

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